First and Foremost - 1979 Triumph Spitfire 1500

An original-owner car that's virtually perfect

Feature Article from Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car

This story is about a Triumph Spitfire 1500 that found a keeper for life. It just might be the most original 1979 around anywhere.

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We're telling a wired saga here. Or at least, a story that begins in wires, mazes of them. Which is okay with Mike Paserchia, who's had a longtime electron buzz, and was going to school in 1979 to get better at it. He had a job at an auto stereo installer--in the Seventies, there were probably more of them in Jersey than muscle cars--when a guy puttered in with an MG Midget, looking for an audio system. Mike snaked through everything and got it in, while also learning that his customer worked at an import dealership, T&T Motors, in Edison, New Jersey, a 1-2 gearshift down U.S. 1 from a Ford assembly plant. The Midget, as opposed to any other installation, had nailed Mike's attention.
"The guy had told me, 'If you put this radio in, I can sell this car today.' When I graduated from school, I went over to see him, not realizing until then that he was the owner of the dealership. I got into a Midget and learned I couldn't shift it. I'm six foot one, and my legs wouldn't clear the steering wheel. It was funny when his salesman told me, 'Aw, you'll get used to it.' Next thing, I go over to a Spitfire, which had a hardtop, and here my head's hitting the headliner. Then he puts me in an MGB, but that was a lot more money than I had," Mike recalled.
Out on the T&T lot was a soft-top Spitfire. In recounting the same realization that sold countless Spitfires, Mike explained, "I went out there, and realized that I could sit in it. That was it."
That's this car. Mike soon learned that legroom was only its first worthy attribute. There's a lot more to a Spitfire than an interior that doesn't mimic a flak vest, and a lot less. Viewed from today, it doesn't sound nuts to suggest that the best thing that ever happened to the Spitfire was a downtrend in sales late in his life. That warned off British Leyland against either replacing it, or making any real changes that regulations didn't mandate. The unintended, very welcome consequence is that every Spitfire is brilliantly, gratefully light and simple. Half the underpinnings come into view by unsnapping a pair of latches. The Spit proves that "designed by geniuses to be used by idiots" applies to more than governing.
A Spitfire's charming straightforwardness and ease of maintenance make it easy to believe that our Higher Power wanted us to enjoy driving. It's plainly engineered out of necessity--between the first Triumph-Standard discussions of a new sports car and the Spitfire's rollout in 1962, the firm unveiled a dozen new models, ranging from the Vanguard Six to the Atlas van. Most weren't massively successful, even though the debutants included both the TR3 and TR4. Another new product was the Triumph Herald, successor to the Standard Ten sedan, which had been sold in the United States as a Triumph. Two major considerations loomed as Standard-Triumph green-lighted the Herald: The firm had no proprietary body plant, and the marketing plan called for the Herald to be sold in kit form for reassembly in key markets that included India and Australia.
The Herald had to be a really simple car, and cheap to produce, therefore. That, essentially, knocked out the original plan to build the Herald with a semi-monocoque or unitized body. Instead, the Herald would have a very basic frame. In theory, that would have made for a very traditionalist car, but the Herald's conventionality stopped dead right there. The frame mounted all-independent suspension, with swing arms at the rear. An uncommon high amount of steering angle was used, to match turning circles with the new competitor from BMC, the Mini. Also, the Herald may be the first mass-production car ever fitted with an impact-absorbing steering column. To reduce the complexity of building, individual body sections were minimized. A one-piece tilt front end was adopted, with a 948cc OHV four-cylinder engine underneath.
While successful, and recognized today for its understated audacity of design, the Herald was no sports car. Its debut in 1959, coupled with the Standard-Triumph and Leyland merger a year later, still leads to a misconception that the Triumph Spitfire was a rush job designed to get a low-priced sports car into the hands of U.S. shoppers. It's easy to see why some might think so. By 1959, BMC was doing very cheerily with its bite-sized Austin-Healey Sprite, born the previous year. The coming TR4 would still leave Triumph without a smaller sporting roadster. Only it didn't, because at Standard-Triumph, a project sports car known as Zobo, or simply the Bomb, was running before the Sprite was built.
Leading that project was Triumph tech boss Harry Webster, partly in conjunction with production manager George Turnbull. Right here, let's introduce another vital personage in the Spitfire story, Giovanni Michelotti, one of Italian styling's most traveled hired guns. Prepped at Stabilimenti Farina, Michelotti worked up new bodies for the Talbot T-26 before drawing the Cunningham C3 for Vignale and later, contract work for Hino of Japan. While adding Bertone and Ghia to his client base, Michelotti got a call from Coventry to do the 1956 Triumph Vanguard, a successful job. That led to another contract for the Herald, and then, to create lines for the Bomb, as it was still called. That was in early 1961, which was when Stanley Markland, come from truck builder Albion to head Triumph after the merger, spotted the Bomb while touring the factory and approved it immediately.
The collaboration between Triumph and Michelotti was one of the most productive in British motoring history, an alliance that also yielded the TR4 and, later, the Stag. The car they created is an eternal delight. Obviously, it has its basis in the Herald, with a shortened Herald 1200 serving as something of a Spitfire test bed for a time. They are not interchangeable cars, to correct another sometime misconception. The Spitfire's frame, with a much more pronounced backbone and big box-section structures at each end, to which the independent suspension (which was Herald-sourced) was bolted. Its smart layout, in turn, gave the Spitfire its famed legroom. The Spitfire's all-steel body was welded, for squeak limitation, and then bolted through its very wide and strong lower sills to the frame.
Nobody can overemphasize just how non-threateningly basic a Spitfire is. It is arguably the best car in the world for a new collector or enthusiast. The sales numbers from new tend to bear that out. Even with a bigger sports car of its own in the showrooms, Triumph still sold more than 24,000 Spitfires combined during the car's first three years in the United States, with the figures getting better annually. Triumph introduced Mark 3 and Mark IV, with increased power, through 1972.
Mike's Spitfire is the product of the last two big changes in the model's lifetime. The Mark IV appeared for 1971, with a totally redone body by Michelotti, although the flip-up headlamps he first proposed didn't make it. A square rear treatment with fascia-mounted taillamps, however, did. So did an excision of the earlier front panel joints. By this time, another merger had joined erstwhile rivals BMC and Triumph under the new aegis of British Leyland. Spen King, Triumph's new tech boss, was evaluating where the Spitfire headed now. His major contribution was new swing-axle geometry at the rear, which effectively pivoted the leaf spring atop the differential to dissuade rear-wheel tuck-under.
In the United States, the Spitfire's last hurrah began in 1975. Legalities and business realities alike dictated that Spitfires had to be configured with U.S. sales as an uppermost consideration. A stroke increase brought the original Herald engine to 1,493cc, mating it to a new corporate single-rail transmission shared (horrors!) with the Midget. The "new" Spitfire 1500 wore 2.5 MPH bumpers with increasingly tumor-shaped rubber guards. This is the car that closed the books for Triumph in America, as the Spitfire was swarmed by a Washington assault. Unlike the home version, America's Spitfire dribbled along with a catalytic converter and just 57hp from a single Zenith-Stromberg carburetor, to which U.S.-spec cars with the 1500 engine were restricted from 1973 onward. Despite a record sales year in 1976, Triumph halted Spitfire sales in California when the car could no longer meet its smog standards. That eliminated half its market. By then, British Leyland was a ward of the state. It was over. The final Spitfire was built in mid-1980.
Mike's car, one of 10,276 Spitfires built in 1979, is delectably right. About 20 years ago, he had the valve cover repainted. There was a small spot on the firewall to repaint in Carmine when he replaced a leaky master cylinder. The seat foam is new, but the covers are original. Same for most of the rubber, which was dressed, including the factory hoses. The actual mileage is just past 29,000.
"The engine's never been out. The transmission was out because I had to replace the clutch. The only reason I had to do that was because there's this fork that presses against the throwout bearing, which pivots on a pin, and the pin had slipped out. It's a common problem on Spitfires because it's just pressed in. I took the interior out and had the new clutch put in. I had a milk crate that I sat on when I drove it over there."
Most of the car is 1979-correct for its home turf, anyway. Mike installed a Clarion cassette system and a graphic equalizer from new. The headlamp guards go back almost as far as the Spitfire does. New Jersey road debris broke both early headlamps. "In the beginning, I found this wax called Malm's, a little can for maybe $16, that was made for airplanes. The can told you to put it on straight, not in a circular motion. Most people don't believe that this is all original paint." Mechanically, the major deviation is a factory-appearing PerTronix ignition.
Mike bought an option-free car. "The only thing I wish I'd gotten was the overdrive. When you get it up to 60 or 65 MPH, it just screams, so it would be nice to bring that down a little. But it's a car that's never failed to get me home. It's primitive. It's a great car, an easy car to drive and own. I'd recommend a Spitfire to anyone. It's enormously fun to drive, mostly. When I bought it, every other car wasn't an SUV. Today, all I see next to me are undercarriages. I've adjusted my driving so as never to get in people's blind spots, because they look right over.
"Once you're away from them, the car drives itself. It's incredibly light, simple and fun."
Owner's Story
"I actually liked the MG Midget, but when I saw the Spitfire, I fell in love with it. It was just before the second big gas crisis. My friend bought a new Spitfire a year later and paid $1,000 more than I had.
"At the time, I was still pretty much a Detroit guy, and had never really thought about having a British car. It's been a weekend car for a long time now. About the farthest I take it is to the import show at Carlisle, which is 400 miles round trip. I've tried to keep it original. People will ask me if they can take a picture underneath, or under the dashboard, to use it as a template for restoring their own. It's pretty rare to find one like mine."
-Mike Paserchia
What to pay
Low: $3,000
Average: $7,000
High: $11,000
Club SceneVintage Triumph Register
P.O. Box 655
Howell, Michigan 48844-0655www.vtr.org
Dues: $30/year; Membership: 2,600
North American Spitfire Squadron
529 E. Sycamore Street
Columbus, Ohio 43206www.nasshq.org
Dues: $20/year; Membership: 800
Pros and ConsPros
America's best 1979 Spitfire?
Incredibly light and nimble
Enough room for Yao Ming
Cons
Smog-scrub power shortage
Looking up at Escalades
A little short on power
SPECIFICATIONSENGINE
Type: OHV inline-four, cast-iron block and cylinder head, two valves per cylinder
Displacement: 1,493cc (91.9 cubic inches)
Bore x stroke: 73.7 x 76mm
Compression ratio: 7.5:1
Horsepower @ RPM: 57 @ 5,000
Torque @ RPM: 82-lbs.ft. @ 3,000
Fuel system: Zenith-Stromberg 150 CD4T sidedraft carburetor w/automatic choke
Lubrication system: Full pressure, rotor pump
Electrical system: 12-volt, PerTronix ignition
Exhaust system: Cast-iron exhaust manifold, catalytic converter, single exhaust
TRANSMISSION
Type: Four-speed manual, all synchromesh
Ratios: 1st 3.50:1
2nd: 2.16:1
3rd: 1.39:1
4th: 1.00:1
Reverse: 3.99:1
Clutch: 184mm Borg & Beck, single dry plate
DIFFERENTIAL
Type: Hypoid bevel gears
Ratio: 3.89:1
STEERING
Type: Alford & Adler manual rack-and-pinion
Turns, lock-to-lock: 3.75
Turning circle: 24 feet
BRAKES
Type: Girling hydraulic, dual-circuit master cylinder
Front: 9-inch ventilated disc
Rear: 7-inch expanding drum
CHASSIS & BODY
Construction: Steel backbone chassis, welded steel body, vinyl top
Body style: Two-door, two-seat roadster
Layout: Longitudinal front engine, rear-wheel drive
SUSPENSION
Front: Independent, upper and lower control arms, coil springs, anti-roll bar, telescopic shock absorbers
Rear: Independent, dual swing axles, transverse five-leaf semi-elliptic spring, radius rods, telescopic shock absorbers
WHEELS & TIRES
Wheels: Pressed steel disc
Front/rear: 13 x 5 inches
Tires: Bridgestone Insignia radials
Front/rear: P175/70R13
WEIGHTS & MEASURES
Wheelbase: 83 inches
Overall length: 156.3 inches
Overall width: 58.5 inches
Overall height: 47.4 inches
Front track: 49 inches
Rear track: 50 inches
Curb weight: 1,821 pounds
CAPACITIES
Crankcase: 9.6 pints w/filter
Fuel tank: 8.7 gallons
Transmission: 1.8 pints
Rear axle: 1.2 pints
Cooling system: 9.6 pints
CALCULATED DATA
Hp per cc: 0.038
Weight per hp: 31.94 pounds
Weight per CID: 19.81 pounds
PERFORMANCE
0-60 MPH: 15.4 seconds
¼ mile: 20.2 seconds
Top speed: 94 MPH
PRICE
Cost new: $5,788.35 (including New Jersey tax)

This article originally appeared in the January, 2010 issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car.